Words of Welcome

Acts 11:1-18 Remember the night the Berlin Wall fell?  What a night of joy it was for the people of Berlin and Germany.  Or what about the wall of segregation breached by the Civil Rights Movement?  That too was a moment of joy, and yet dividing walls continue to exist. Eleven o’clock on Sunday morning remains the most segregated hour of the week. Not many of you remember 1920 when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granted women the right to vote, but it was a great victory for women and for American democracy.  Unfortunately many Christian communities still refuse to ordain women and America has yet to elect a woman President. As we continue this sermon series focusing on transforming encounters with the Risen Christ, we’ve reached the climactic moment in the first half of the Book of Acts.  With Peter’s vision and his report to the Jerusalem Church, the focus of the story shifts to the Gentile mission.  What we see here is that change can be difficult, and bar

Acts 9:36-43 This has been a week marked by images of death. It’s not the sort of week that we associate with the Easter season, and it at least changed the context for this sermon.  Our continuing celebration of the Resurrection has been interrupted by the deadly explosions at the Boston Marathon and at a fertilizer plant that devastated a small Texas town.  Four people died in the first event, and at least fourteen in the second. Events like this week’s two tragedies catch our attention.  We can become engrossed in the stories, which were told and retold countless times during the week.  Friday morning began with news of the death of one suspect in the Boston bombing, and ended the day with the capture of the other.  But what message did we take from these events and others that occurred in the past week?  These events are close to home, so we pay attention.  What about those who died in China in a deadly earthquake on Friday?      This morning we’ve heard the stor

Acts 9:1-20; John 21:15-19 In Brian Wren’s Easter hymn Christ Is Risen!  Shout Hosanna!  we sing: Christ is risen!  Earth and heaven nevermore shall be the same. Break the bread of new creation where the world is still in pain. Tell its grim demonic chorus: “Christ is risen!  Get you gone!” God the first and last is with us.  Sing Hosanna everyone!  (CH 222) Yes, let’s sing hosanna because heaven and earth “shall not be the same.”  Because God is in Christ reconciling the world to God’s self, we are now part of God’s new creation. This morning we take the next step in our journey through the Book of Acts, focusing on how encounters with the Risen Christ transform lives.   This morning I’d like us to consider two important stories about people whose lives were dramatically changed because of their encounters with the Risen Christ.  There’s the story of Saul’s Damascus Road encounter, which we’ve already heard read.  Then there’s John’s story of Peter’s life-chang

Acts 5:27-32 This morning we continue our Easter celebration with a reading from the Book of Acts.  It’s the first of five readings from Acts that focus on what I want to call “Transformative Encounters.”  Over the next five weeks I’ll be offering a sermon series  that explores how encounters with the Risen Christ transform lives. This morning we begin our journey with a reading from Acts 5.  We find Peter and John standing before the Council a second time.  They’ve been arrested because they won’t stop preaching about Jesus.  The last time they were thrown in jail, angels liberated them.  But, this time, they must face their accusers, who according to Luke, are rather upset.  They hoped that after Jesus died, his followers would disappear, but for some reason they were still hanging around.  They were becoming pests and the authorities wanted to see them to go away.   Peter steps forward, and answers their demand that he and the rest of the community stop preaching